African-American Firsts: Literature
In the summer of 1908, the country was shocked by the account of the race riots at Springfield, Illinois. Here, in the home of Abraham Lincoln, a mob containing many of the town's "best citizens," raged for two days, killed and wounded scores of Negroes, and drove thousands from the city. And because of this the NAACP was born.
African-American Firsts: Sports
In 1863, during the American Civil War (1861–1865), President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing slaves in the southern states at war with the North.
Hiram Rhodes Revels (September 27, 1827[1] – January 16, 1901) was the first African American to serve in the United States Senate.
Black History Month began as "Negro History Week," which was created in 1926 by Carter G. Woodson, a noted African American historian, scholar, educator, and publisher. It became a month-long celebration in 1976. The month of February was chosen to coincide with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.
Known as “Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement” Rosa Parks was born today in 1913. On December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks, age 42, refused to obey bus driver James Blake’s order that she give up her seat to make room for a white passenger. Parks’ act of defiance became an important symbol […]
Thurgood Marshall was the first African American ever appointed to the United States Supreme Court. He was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson, and served on the Supreme Court from 1967 to 1991.
ack Johnson became the first African-American man to hold the World Heavyweight Champion boxing title in 1908.
In 1928 Oscar DePriest became the first African American congressman elected to the House of Representatives from a northern state and a national symbol for racial pride. Read more on Oscar DePriest here.
George Washington Carver developed 300 derivative products from peanuts, among them cheese, milk, coffee, flour, ink, dyes, plastics, wood stains, soap, linoleum, medicinal oils and cosmetics.
In 1940, Hattie McDaniel was the first African-American performer to win an Academy Award (the film industry’s highest honor) for her role in Gone With The Wind.
